Thinking politically

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The previous post got me to thinking about politics in my own life.  What I articulate below I have said before in various ways.  I doubt it will surprise anyone who knows me.

In my early times I had no particular interest in politics.  Dwight Eisenhower was President in my high school and college years, and I liked Ike (as everyone did).  He could have run as Republican or Democrat and won under either label.  He’s my first memorable President.

I was too young to vote for Kennedy or Nixon – voting age was 21 in 1960 and I was 20.  My guess is that I would have voted Kennedy.  I saw Nelson Rockefeller in person in Valley City in 1961 and he was impressive.  He was vying for the Republican nomination at the time.

The rest of the 60s were a blur for me – life got in the way of politics, so I wasn’t an activist politically.

Since the late 60s I’ve been pretty comfortably Democrat – a party which has the strength and the weakness that comes from diverse people and opinions.  Truly a “big tent”.    In 2020 I described Democrats s the party of “We”; what remained of the Republican Party as the party of “Me”.  You’ll find this defined in blog posts about August 1 2020.

Of course, labels are tricky.

The Republicans were founded as the party of Lincoln, and the segregationist south was Democrat for many years.

There have always been offshoot parties, but they are very small.  In my memory, the only declared Independents who did pretty well in national elections were George Wallace, H. Ross Perot and John Anderson.

Today, most people declare themselves to be Independent, but invariably the only parties that get many votes are either Republican or Democrat.

Numerous times I used this graphic to describe what I believe is the body politic in America: I see the “Hard Left” and the “Hard Right” as essentially identical twins – passionate, fairly small and unruly minorities.  Most Americans simply want the country to work, and in the end vote for who they think is the most reasonable choice.  I think the Tuesday election in Wisconsin reflected this reasonableness.

Just my opinion.

POSTNOTE: “Politics” and “Politicians” are things people love to hate.  In a democracy, we ARE politics and politicians, whatever we do, or don’t do, or try to evade responsibility for.  POLITICS is US.

Having said that, in recent times I’ve become aware of having a closer call than most to the institution called Politics.

Very Briefly: I didn’t expect Gov. Tim Walz to get the nod for vice-president nominee last summer.  He did.  I only met him in person one time, at a fund raiser in the summer of 2006, when he was doing his first run for public office.  (I recall him as a bit green then, but what else would you expect in a rookie.). He makes this small town teacher’s kid proud, cuz that’s what he is proud of himself.

June 23, 2011, I went to a local DFL (Democrat) picnic, and one of the speakers was the new chairman of the Minnesota DFL, Ken Martin.  Martin recently became the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  I know he’ll do a good job in an always impossible task.  Here’s a photo I took of him at the 2011 meeting.

Ken Martin June 23, 2011

When Martin left Minnesota his position was open, and on February 24, 2025, I was at a local meeting where a candidate for the vacancy met with us.  Richard Carlbom recently became the new chair of the Minnesota DFL.  Here’s his photo:

Richard Carlblom Feb 24, 2025

Richard was a young Mayor shortly after college graduation, won reelection, went to work on the first campaign for then school-teacher Tim Walz near 20 years ago and the rest is history.

Long and short, I’m privileged to have seen the real humans who now are in the news.  They are more than equal to the challenges they have to face.

 

Wisconsin…Hands-Off

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Day 73 of first 100.

Tuesday was an important Election Day in Wisconsin.  There were also two elections in Florida.  I choose to focus on Wisconsin because I’m about ten miles “as the crow flies” from Wisconsin, and the Twin Cities media carried much of the advertising seen by Wisconsin voters.  (I’m the dot on the edge of western Wisconsin, below!  In reality I’m far smaller than the one on the map.   At the same time, I know that I am one of 75,000,000 who can do something, everyday, everywhere!))

My apologies to Alaska and Hawaii…You are states in good standing; and apologies to Mexico and Canada, countries in good standing as well!

I avoid predicting outcomes of events such as elections, so my last post was the day before the election in Wisconsin.  Anyone who is interested knows all about how that election is being spun: how much money was spent; the power actors, on and on and on.

The long and short of it is that the election was decided by individual voters for all of the many reasons they had to vote as they did.  Like me, every single citizen is the critical vote in every election in our still-democracy.

Saturday, April 5, will likely be a major beginning point for a continuing program of advocacy in the United States.  This is being organized by a group called Hands Off, and at the website is a link that identifies events in your area.  Check it out.

Strategies: Much of my work career was involved in the imperfect practice of the art of organizing people in Union settings.  Many years ago I sketched a couple of symbols about the dilemmas and potential of organizing.  The original sketch is here:

In my opinion, people tend to collect in groups of diverse sizes and purposes, and generally somebody becomes a leader.  These groups might be autonomous but ultimately they tend towards larger coalitions.  You can simply look at the groups with which you personally interact, and how they are led and with whom they have common cause.  This could be a church, or a club, almost anything.  Most of the people are at the base.  Without care a leader, even with the best of intentions, will become separated from the group he’s leading, symbolized by the cloud bank.  He or she may has started with the best of motives, but time brings changes.  He or she tends to find common cause with other leaders.  They are, as my illustration suggests, above the clouds.  The base is down there, to be manipulated.

Over the years working with organizations small and not so small, I noticed that leaders in various ways became bottlenecks, interfering with inputs to and outputs from their base.  They had more information, but controlled what they shared.

in the contemporary political world, the leaders and the managers of communication control what their base has access to.  The base, for instance, does not decide what the 6:00 TV news will contain.  That is decided by the producers who in turn, in our society, depend on advertisers, who are attracted by potential customers.  “Informing” is not the primary purpose of this model, in my opinion.

I think we see this every day in most every political act.  As I have said on numerous occasions, we, the people, are the “politics” we despise.  Only we can be the solution.  And apparently in Wisconsin on Tuesday of this week we saw an example of this.

The two elections earlier this week demonstrate that the body politic has considerable power if it so chooses.  We – each of us – are in the drivers seat, but only if we so choose.  The future is ours to make – not anyone else’s responsibility, rather our own, in the endless ways we can do this.  Let’s go to work.

Tesla in Woodbury April 1, 2025

A FINAL THOUGHT: Strictly by chance I happened to park behind a Tesla earlier this week.  Nice car….

As I mentioned in an earlier post, customers for Tesla’s as for any automobiles are no different than the rest of us.  In the case of Tesla, the Uber-wealthy sullied the reputation of his own claim to fame and incredible monetary wealth.  The car itself doesn’t deserve a bad reputation, but the brand is badly damaged.  We need to keep that in mind.  There are, after all, people like ourselves who built, sell, and maintain items like this vehicle, and they are part of our greater economy as well.

Some personal comments on Politics generally here.

COMMENTS (also at end of post): 

from Fred:

Dear Sir;
The addressee of this email has apparently fled the country with everything he owned and some stuff he didn’t. It seems the stock market crash has wiped him out. If you have any knowledge about his whereabouts, the reward is substantial.
J. Edgar Heaver, Loan service officer

from Dick, afternoon April 5:  I drove over to the State Capitol area in St. Paul late Saturday morning.  The crowd was incredible and orderly with lots of signs.  Parking was an impossibility.  I managed to drive around the Capitol area before I headed home.  I would suspect the same report comes from other places as well.  The “proof of the pudding” will be the long term.  A large percentage of people engaged is less necessary than sustained effort – doing something every day wherever one lives.

from James: When I read this (link in 4th para below) today, I immediately thought of some of our more recent conversations, both in person and on line.  So I thought I’d share it with you.

I don’t think I’ve told you (because I make a point of not telling anyone) who I voted for for President in the last three cycles.  Largely because, from my perspective, there is MUCH more information value in communicating HOW DIFFICULT a decision I regarded it to be each time.  I think partisans on both sides (or at least the extremes of both sides) quit listening – and surely quit truly hearing – the instant you tell them who you ultimately voted for (either way!) You know how much I read politics, and talk politics, and work campaigns, and so does almost everyone else I interact with, so there is “information value” in telling people that I (literally!) decided which candidate to vote for on my way into the polling place each time.  I try to avoid allowing anyone to conclude that I was all-in with Hillary-Biden-Harris or all-in with Trump, because… well… I WASN’T, and the way to get EITHER party to change – at all – is to help partisans understand that there are still “Persuadables” and it is NOT just “all about turning out the base”.  So the farthest I will go is to say that I have voted for at least one Republican and at least one Independent for a major public office… somewhere in the span of 1976-2024…!  But I will tell anyone about decisions I thought were “tough” (From an earlier time, the jumbled ideologies of the Skip-Ventura-Coleman Governor’s race come immediately to mind…)

There have been other opinion pieces that try to put into words my own sense that, while I still maintain roughly 90-95% of the core values and beliefs I held at any point from, say, 1980 to 2012, the Progressive Movement and the Democratic Party have changed to a great extent – and, with the arrival/triumph of Trump and “MAGA”, so have the Republicans.  (I was never one of those Dems who agreed with 100% of the party’s majority positions – but back then, 70 or 80% was good enough, and we didn’t try to kick anybody out over being on the “wrong” side of one or two or even several.  As a Catholic, I’m sure you can remember anti-abortion Dems, and there are lots of other examples… until only the last 10 years or so, when we started to insist on “purity”.  The harsh criticism that Gavin Newsome just took from leftists for saying out loud what 80% of all Americans, and 60% of all Dems, believe about the unfairness of biological men competing against women in sports astounds me…)  This piece, though, does the best job I’ve seen so far in capturing what I and a lot of other folks have sensed/felt/experienced/realized about the shifts in the parties of the last 10-15 years.


[I include the link provided by Jim to a column by a “MAGA Lefty” but note that it is pay-walled and long and (in my opinion) doesn’t add much to the conversation, and it is simply another opinion among the millions out there.  I have read it.]

I am not a “MAGA anything”.  I still regard myself as a Pragmatic Progressive – but I have to concede her point that when I say “progressive”, I mean something very different from what those who are all-in with “The Movement” mean today.  She sums up my issues with the progressive movement’s last 10-15 years exceptionally well – I think the fact that she and I each have such difficulty expressing out current political “identities” in simple terms, and, in fact, express them very differently from each other – speaks to how bizarre the political moment in which we’re living truly is.

On a related note, I recently read a piece on Cesar Chavez (who I heard speak in Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza – with Gov. Jerry Brown! – and with music by Donovan!  …back when I was in grad school)  That piece was written entirely to remind readers that Chavez had been – entirely – an ECONOMIC liberal/progressive, and, today, would be on the non-Progressive side of almost every SOCIAL issue – but especially everything having to do with the border, with “identity”, and with equity-over-equality.  Sometimes I almost get convinced that contemporary Progressive extremists might NOT be “gaslighting” me, so it’s good every now and then to read a piece like that or a piece like the one I’ve linked to above, to remind me that my memory is still good and my ethical/moral/policy instincts are, at the least, no less pure than they ever were.  There really WAS a time when the Democratic Party and liberal mainstream values were the ones I still hold.


response from Dick:  Jim and I are good friends and have good conversations.

The March to Fascism

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April 1: An election day in Wisconsin and Florida.

Give yourself 10 minutes to either read or listen to Thinking About from Timothy Snyder.  Skeptic?  Okay.  Shelve it for the necessary 10 minutes.

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Here is my March 29 post, published on Day 68 of the first 100 days.  I am reposting this because nearly 90 potential readers, 90% of them Yahoo and AOL addresses. did not receive the post “deferred due to unexpected volume or complaints”.  I have no idea what this was all about, or whether it will be repeated when I send this.  This is a first for me, there was no objectionable content, no complaints from anyone, and almost all returns were from the two groups of addresses above.  If anyone has any insights I’d appreciate hearing from you.  As I say, in all the years I’ve done this, this is the first time this has happened.

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NOTE: I make an effort to be well informed, difficult with such a massive onslaught of  “Executive Orders” dismantling the democracy I’ve lived in my entire life.

Substack seems to be locus of many of my personally most reliable and credible and well-informed sources.  The ones I’ve come to rely on, as well as Timothy Snyder above, are these: Letters from an American, Prof Heather Cox Richardson; Civil Discourse, Joyce Vance; The Weekly Sift, Doug Morau (not substack); Lucid, Ruth Ben-Ghiat; Big Picture, George Takei.  Most are accessible free, but I strongly encourage paid subscription to those used regularly.  They are a service.  There are many more.  I’m purposely not including links.  They are all easily accessed.

The next months are crucial in what the future holds.  Don’t sit this out.  Stay well informed and involved.

COMMENTS:

from Brian:  Great–I loved it, his 20 points!  Thanks so much for sharing.

from Flo: After I figured out how to do it, I listened to all of it! No April Fools here yet!

Bits and Pieces

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By my count, today is Day 68 of the first 100 days.  Our democracy is under assault, we have to be the ones who defend it.  Do something, every day.  There are at least 75 million of us.

It seems pertinent this day to reprise my first and only reference to Tesla in these pages.  It was September 29, 2024.  Also, Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from an American for March 27, 2025, is very important and. worth your time.  If you’re one of those who isn’t worried yet, even with new alarm bells every day, hopefully something will be the cold water in the face you need to get on the court.  Every one of her daily letters is worth your time.

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Monday was the occasional Coffee Conversation gathering of local Democrats in my city.  There were 11 of us.  Whoever shows up, shows up.  I attend most sessions.  There are few folks who I can honestly say I know.  This makes for a stimulating conversation every time, shall I say a bit like “herding cats”?  I say this not as a criticism.  Democrats are a big tent.

One question from the facilitator to the group: do you support Senator Schumer’s recent action?   It seemed clear to me that “yes” was the prevailing opinion, though not unanimous.  At the end I’ll add a little more.  Such conversations at the grass roots are very important, whether two people, or eleven, or whatever….

A few Bits and Pieces from the week, if you wish:

  1. My sister, Mary, is a very active senior citizen.  Her occasional letters are always interesting.  The most recent one had a list on “The evolving Landscape of Scams”: Scam Tips.  Mary:  “I’ve discovered way too many lunch and learn opportunities for seniors so pepper my calendar with forays presented by great, good, and mediocre retired peers…some talking points from an interesting look at scams-and no, seniors are not the prime target for scammers!“
  2. March is Women’s History Month: The March 24, 2025, Star Tribune had an interesting commentary by the Minnesota leaders of AAUW and League of Women Voters: Women’s History Month MN Startribune 3 24 2025.  Recently I was looking at the 1971 roster of the Minnesota Legislature which had been included in a newsletter I did as a teacher 54 years ago.  The roster is here: Minnesota legislators 1971.  As best I can identify, there was one (1) female legislator (of 201) that year.  There has been a considerable change since then, which varies year by year.    The current rosters of the Minnesota House and Senate show that 49 of 134 Representatives and 21 of 67 Senators are women.  More information here.  Improving from one female representative to seventy among a total of 201 representative is a great accomplishment, still short of parity, but still worthy to celebrate.  Here is an interesting  web reference. The last page of the above legislator link is tips for how to most effectively communicate with legislators.  Technology has changed methods, but tips are timeless.
  3. The link to the four-hour James J. Hill documentary is here.  If you have any interest in U.S. history in the expansion years about and after the Civil War, you will want to watch this.
  4. My personal commentary on Social Security history is here.
  5. My personal commentary on U.S. Department of Education is here.

…Towards the end of Monday’s Coffee Conversation, Jim asked each of the 11 of us to focus on and share something positive.  We each took our turn.

When my turn came I said my nature has always been towards optimism. I noted that there were 11 around the table, with different ideas.  I said what a difference it would make if each one of us would commit to impact on a single individual we know who either didn’t vote at all in November, 2024, or voted for the opponent and might be second-guessing their decision as time has gone on in these 100 days.  I noted, as I have many times since Nov. 5, that there were 75,000,000 of us who voted for Harris/Walz, and what a huge difference it would make if in one way or another each of those 75 million would do something to reach just one other.

Yes, it’s a big audacious dream.  But it make sense to me.  How about you, and that one other, who is someone you know.  There’s 18 months till the next election.  That is a heap of days….

(At the beginning of this post I mention Tesla.  At the same conversation on Monday, the man sitting next to me said he owns a Tesla and he said it is a very good car.  It was a reminder that every issue has sides to it.  I don’t know the man, but he was there as a Democrat, and he stayed for the entire conversation, and the comment was civil.  When I got to my car in the parking lot, I noticed my 2010 Toyota. with its 253,000 miles, was parked next to a Tesla – likely his, bright blue….)

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Epilogue: March 22 I prepared a post that was published titled AMillionCopies.  Ultimately I discarded most of what I’d written, since it was a distraction, I felt.  But I kept the draft, and some readers might be interested in the recovered portions which follow.

“AMillionCopies” is a personal website I’ve had on line since March of 2008.  It will take a few seconds to scroll through.  Take a quick look.

In June, 2007, I was in my last year as President of a coalition of groups, the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers, and I decided to visit the annual meeting of one of them, then World Citizen, now World Citizen Peace.

That particular day an old man who I didn’t know, rose and sang his version of “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream“, a favorite rendition by John Denver in 1971.  (The same summer, Denver performed the same song in the 1971 movie at the website.  It was the old man’s production.)

The old man was Lynn Elling, founder of World Citizen, long time peacemaker, and a few days later he, his wife and I were sitting at the same table at another organization we both were part of, Citizens for Global Solutions, whose visionary leader was a hero of mine, Dr. Joseph Schwartzberg.

Over the next few months I decided to launch the Million Copies website, including the two men as roommates, so to speak.  (Both gentlemen are deceased; their personal philosophies are preserved in videos here.)  I’d really recommend watching the two videos to get a sense of how elders viewed the landscape from their own perspectives going back to WWII era.”

BONUS: to close, here is a haunting song sung by Bob Dylan in 2002 Domenech jo-an.  If you can understand what he’s saying, you’re better than I.  It is just a gripping instrumental tune.  Thanks to Brian, who I think first aimed me towards it months ago.  It is 9 minutes.

AMillionCopies

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This letter is especially to you, specifically to you.

Today (Saturday, March 22, 2025) is the second day of Spring in Minnesota, and Day 61 of the first 100 days since the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States.

Today, it is increasingly evident that the citizenry of the U.S. is beginning to  act against what we are seeing happening at the highest levels in this country of ours.  So I’m scrapping most of what I planned to say, and will include some links which you may find useful.  Possibly I’ll include the rough draft of what I was going to say.  If so, it will be at the very end.

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AMillionCopies?  “AMillionCopies” is a website I put up in March of 2008, which still exists with basic content unchanged; a tribute to two personal citizen heroes with a few links to groups I support.  It will take only a few seconds to scroll through.  Do take a look.  The site came to mind a week ago when I overheard two apparently old friends reconnecting at my coffee place.  They seemed in synch with me, and one of them was talking about what she heard was a “million postcard” campaign bubbling up somewhere.  It brought my website to mind. Here’s the song that motivated me then, and still does.

I have a second personal website which goes back to 2002 which has a peace and justice component: chez-nous.net/peace-justice. It, also, takes only seconds to scroll through, though there is more if you are interested.  Ironically, the first story on the page, written in 2005 was about Red Lake MN, and refers to the place and the tragic event that is the front page story in today’s Minnesota Star Tribune.

Pertinent recent blog posts:

Social Security March 13

Department of Education March 11

Back in 2008 I did a series of short essays I called “Uncomfortable Essays to the Peace, Justice… Communities“.   For you, if you wish.

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The final item today is reference to a fascinating four-part program I saw on public television this week.

James J. Hill

The last few days I’ve had the good fortune of learning about and watching the four episodes on the life of James J. Hill.   HERE is the link to the four episodes.  The series is about four hours, so plan accordingly.  I think you’ll find it very engaging.

Hill was born 1838, a farm kid in what is now rural Guelph Ontario; and from 1856 till his death in 1916, St. Paul MN was his home.

If you have any interest in history, particularly if your personal history includes the midwest or northwest United States, you’ll want to carve out the time to watch this.

POSTNOTE: At the beginning of the 100 days on January 20, 2025, I doubt any of us could have accurately predicted the chaos and confusion that has followed.  There are 39 days to go.  I’m not sure if or how I’ll modify my habits at this space.  Absolutely I will stay in action, and I hope you will as well.  If we lose our democracy in any way, we have lost it all for our future.  Keep on, keeping on.

COMMENTS (more at end):

from Brad: thank you for the links.  I really enjoyed the “American Indian Story” on your Peace & Justice site. It is so true, and I have to agree.  I’ve recognized similar internal conflicts with a few of my Trump-based family members.  Unfortunately, losing contact and communication with one brother is the result.  I try to forgive but it is very hard to do.

The Jim Hill history doc was great too, and had a familiar Collette immigration feel/work ethic to it.  Another interesting fact was about Hill’s protestant and catholic mixed marriage, which along with divorce, were taboo to many Americans.  My father was born a Catholic Collette, my mother an Episcopalian, and both had family issues getting married in 1947.  Luckily, a compromise was made with their parents/in-laws requiring all children to be baptized in a Catholic church, and future upbringing would be in the Episcopal church.  There is hope, and glad that the good wolf was fed!

response from Dick:  Religion was not a neutral issue in the old days.  Today’s tension is an outgrowth of ages old even worse tensions, which we probably can all quite easily recite – at least our portions of them.  I recall a visit with an older woman who lived near my Busch relatives in LaMoure County ND.  She said she really didn’t know the family.  They were Catholic and hers were Lutheran.  The distance was intentional, she said.  The worry was both ways: what if one got interested in one from the other and they got married.  It was as much a market share as it was dogma, in my opinion.

from Remi: I recently finished watching “The Empire Builder” and found it fascinating. What an amazing man, full of contradictions; at times so kind and cruel at others. He accomplished so much. The first episode, focusing on St. Paul, particularly captivated me. I learned that Hill built the rail line between St. Paul and Duluth. The series served as an insightful crash course on unbridled, unregulated capitalism. I was impressed with his experiments concerning dry land farming, which my father, his father, and his grandfather practiced. Have you ever been to the James J. Hill Library?

response from Dick: I have been to Hill Library, but not a usual stop.  The Library is in downtown St. Paul very near the Ordway Center, Landmark Center and other very familiar places.  It is open to the public.

The Empire Builder

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UPDATED MARCH 22, 2025:

The last few days I’ve had the privilege of watching the four episodes on the life of James J. Hill.   HERE is the link to the four episodes. An earlier promotional link about the series can be read here.  The portion about the link to the series there is outdated, bu the other information remains consistent with the program that I saw.

He was born 1838 in what is now rural Guelph Ontario; and from 1856 till his death in 1916, St. Paul MN was his home.

If you have any interest in history, particularly if your personal history includes the midwest or northwest United States, you’ll want to carve out the time to watch this.

Decapitation

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Why “Decapitation” as a title?  See end.  A dew days ago I responded to someone else’s post as follows: “Outstanding. Now if we all can really believe that we are the ones who will make the difference, one person, one action at a time“.  Barbara K, responded to my response: “Richard, I have posted this Marge Piercy poem here a couple of times, but seems fitting to do so again…thinking of “one person, one action at a time”: The Low Road“. It’s worth your time…

Other recent and related posts: 3/6 Aftermath; 3/7 Garrison Keillor; 3/11 Dept of Education; 3/13 Social Security; 3/15 Acquiesce

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Today is St, Patrick’s Day.  Five years ago today, a friend and I were going to meet for breakfast, but the restaurant was unexpectedly closed.  I wrote a bit about it a few days ago in an update to the March 6 post, “Aftermath”.  Here’s what I said:

UPDATE March 9, 2025:  Five years ago, mid-March, 2020, my ‘world’ changed: I think it was March 18, 2020, that public functions in Minnesota closed by state order.  (I had planned to meet a friend for breakfast on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, but the restaurant closed early, and unexpectedly, the previous day.)  As any of us around at that time in history know,  mid-February to mid-March, 2020, was the time of reckoning about Covid-19, for even the most skeptical.  Death was loose among us.  It wasn’t until more than a year later, about May, 2021,  that there was some confidence that we were past the worst of the pandemic and life slowly returned to normal.

[emphasis added] This morning, March 9, 2025, I feel the same as I felt in mid-February, 2020.  Something ominous seems to be on the horizon, and slowly but surely the warning signals are being sent.  Will we listen, is the question I have.  Are we facing a self-imposed political and financial pandemic which will claim lots of victims?  I don’t know, neither do you, but I’m certainly paying attention.

Below is an opportunity to consider what we’re facing at this moment in our history.

Yesterday, a good friend of long-standing, a retired Professor, forwarded a post that came her way from Facebook about what I would call the “Musk faction” presently dominating the American government conversation.

The ‘meat’ of the post, begins at the paragraph which begins “Finally…”.  I have made it more easily readable in pdf form: Follow the Money Feb 9 2025.  I urge you to read this.  Make up your own mind.  Of course, your comments public or private are welcome.

(If you have a Facebook account the entire post from Feb 9, 2025 – one month ago – is likely still accessible here.)

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Of course, all of our routines changed about March 17, 202o, and for a long period of time after.  Everyone has his or her own memories of the impacts of that awful time period which ultimately took over 1,000,000 lives and scarred us in assorted ways forever.

Today, March 17, 2025, I plan to have breakfast with the same friend at the same restaurant, five years later.  The hi-lited paragraph, above, will be on my mind as it has been for some time already, and will continue to be on my mind, by my count 56 days into “the first 100 days” of what is turning out to be the attempted reign of King Donald the First….

I headline this post Decapitation for a specific reason: The obvious intention, it seems to me, is for the Donald Cabal to behead the beast they fallaciously call “the Deep State”, which is everyone of us, and in so doing assume control of the enterprise (which will suddenly become a paradise built in their own image).

The best definition I’ve seen of what we are all facing today was shared with me by a former adversary, then colleague, in 1987.  It was a collection of tactics he had learned in a 1974 organizing workshop in Michigan.  Here it is, from his notes: “P.R. everything. – disrupt – confuse – challenge – display anger.”  There were more similar notes, in all on one side of a single sheet of paper,   The rest are here, if you wish: AFT Organizing Tactics001.  (Don’t get lost in the terminology.  This was about bargaining elections pitting one teachers union against another.  The two competing organizations merged in 1998 and are now known as Education Minnesota.)

I learned of these tactics 13 years after they were used against us.  Then, we saved our scalp by a “Hail Mary”.  We decided to go on the offense, rather than chase the bouncing ball of one charge after another.  In the end, we won a large election easily, but we were nervous till the votes were counted.

The solution today, it seems to me, is for us to exercise the immense power that we have – the 75 million of us who didn’t want the present alternative.  We are, after all, the body which the opposition is trying to kill.  We have a huge amount of unrealized potential, which only we, as individuals, can unleash, one action at a time.  The ball is in our court.  Period.

Have a good St. Patrick’s Day and go to work for a great future.

About as close as I can get to a Shamrock for St. Pat’s from the Busch farm early 1900s collection.

“Acquiesce”?

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The Saturday Minnesota Star Tribune main headline was clear enough: “Dems acquiesce to prevent shutdown“.

Anyone who follows national news has read/heard all about it, so no need to go into detail.

Elsewhere on the front page were other headlines “U approves limits on faculty speech…Resolution gives president broad control over communications”; “So why the big turnout on Tuesday” in a local legislative special election; “After Park Tavern crash, bills target DWI offenders“; “Witness doesn’t back high meal counts in fraud trial“.

All of these relate to “government”.  The only one I want to comment on is the first one, about the continuing resolution vote around the federal budget.

It is hardly secret that we in the U.S. are in a constant state of war these days.  It is not “war” in the traditional sense, such as WWII, or Iraq or such.  It is totally an internal matter, citizen versus citizen; who has the power, who has less; fights over strategy and tactics, most of which the general public doesn’t understand in any context, other than in casual conversation usually with people they agree with (in war, you don’t talk with the enemy).

To the immediate issue, the front page headline, I tend to empathize with Democratic leader Schumer and the 9 other Democrats who made a decision to back the C.R. vote.

Like everyone else, all I know is what I hear or read at a distance.  I’m not privy to the nuance of conversations among ‘combatants’ on the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ side.  It is a deadly serious game, with long-term consequences.  There is a need for a cool head who’s willing to take the heat, regardless of the risk.  And I give Senator Schumer that respect.

It is not unusual in our hierarchical human race for leaders to face such dilemmas.

At the end of WWII, Harry Truman became President coincident with the last weeks of the war in Europe; and was the one who had to make the decision about whether or not to use the Bomb against Japan in August 1945.  As the sign said on the Resolute Desk, “The Buck Stops Here”.

In June, 1944, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower was the one holding the bag on whether or not with respect to D-Day.  The outcome was not at all sure, to the extent that he penned a note prior to the invasion taking full responsibility in case it failed.    Here for more information.

Of course, there are infinite other examples in the history of every society ever.

Fast forward to today, we are engaged in a Civil War within our own nation, where the weapons are words and division of citizens into warring camps.

We are seeing the results of division; and hopefully those who follow us will not reap the consequences of current actions.  What happens is up to us as individuals.  This is no time to stay on the sidelines.

 

Social Security A bit of history…et al

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PRENOTE: If you think what is happening, won’t happen, or can’t happen, read this at your leisure.

It seems a good time to remember Social Security by re-presenting some history through some brief personal recollections, as well as some documentary ‘evidence’ as provided to a covered worker – myself – in 1992 and 2001.

It will be a national tragedy if Social Security and other safety net federal initiatives, all of very long standing, are tampered with, as is the active threat presently on the table.  Resist.  (I’m talking about other programs as well, like Medicaid, education funding through the Department of Education, etc., etc., etc.  Taking a chain saw to government might be a fun conversation; watch it change if actually implemented, including by those who were cheerleaders for it.  Everybody will be a victim.

My grandfather Bernard turned 65 on Feb. 26, 1937.  The Act was passed in 1935; the first social security benefits were paid in 1937; the first actual social security monthly check was issued in 1940 (ironically, the year I was born).

Grandpa likely paid nothing into the fund, and drew on it till his death in 1957.  He had been chief engineer in a flour mill for many years, and by the standards of the time would have been middle class.  The Mill closed in 1927, and in the same month the bank in which the family had their savings went under (apparently the two events were not related) but so much for retirement benefits for the family.  It was a double whammy for my Dad, who graduated from high school the same month, and his plans to go to University went under as well.

Personally, my venture into the social security world began with (apparently) four hours of work at $1.00 an hour in the summer of 1958,  It was moving dirt by wheelbarrow for an under construction church.  It was there I decided to start summer school in college, which seemed a better deal than being common labor!  A photo of my original Social Security card is below.  If memory serves, it was then issued perhaps at age 18, similar to registering for the Military Draft.  A rite of passage, as it were.

Thereafter, as laid out in the linked documents (below), came a pretty normal work life with a couple of dips.  Later in my work life, my wages exceeded by a small amount the maximum on which social security and Medicare were withheld.  Which is to say, I was at the upper edge of normal at the time I retired in 2000.  “Normal” was not wealthy.

In all these many years, I have never had reason to find fault with the program or the administration of it.  Basically, the personal contact has simply been person-to-person.  The ‘hiccups’ have been minor and rare.

So, that’s my narrative.  The following sheets you may find of interest.

Social Security History from SSA website

Social Security Facts ca 2004 Actuary

Here are two documents of my personal history.  “Back in the day” each year we would receive in the U.S. mail these annual reports on the state of our account.  Today, everything is virtual, which is a caution in itself.  If you want a record, print it out.  How to access information is accessible here.

Social Security 1992

Social Security 2001

Department of Education

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PRENOTE: Most of this post was written before the forced evacuation of the Department of Education.  I knew no details.  At some point I will file a second, dated, postnote.

*

Today began the ritual “killing” of the U.S. Department of Education, established as a separate department of the Government in 1980, and now 65 years old.   Of course, the department is not yet officially dead, but has about the same status as USAID did a few weeks ago.

There is a great deal more to be said.  Public Education has been central to my entire life.  For the moment I just want to keep this day as a place holder for public education and all of the students, parents and educators it represents, many, many millions.

As of March 12, 2025, a quick internet search indicated that total enrollment in public schools though grade 12 was 49.6 million children.  This data from National Center for Educational Statistics, an official website of the United States Government.  Look quickly while you still have a chance….  The current population of the United States is estimated as just over 340,000,000.  About one of 7 Americans are students in public schools, almost 100% of them too young to vote and thus unable to choose their representatives.  Millions more are pre-school age.  They are in every nook and cranny of the United States of America.  Public Education is a legacy of our forefathers and mothers.

I have often identified myself as a literal child of public education from tiny towns in North Dakota.  My Junior Year in high school was in a school with two seniors.

Entire high School Antelope ND 1957, Richard front row center

The school photo was taken in a single classroom and grade 9-12 was less than 30 students.  There were two teachers: one was my Dad.

In eighth grade, Mom was my teacher, and my then 5 year old brother spent his day in the grade 7-8 classroom with us.  At least half of my school years we lived in a house called a teacherage, near the school.  I suppose it was a ‘fringe benefit’ – at least it was a place to live.  I have often called myself the child of migrant workers since we moved often.  Teachers had minimal rights.  My parents were excellent teachers.  In the current day, all five of their children have at minimum bachelors degrees, as did they.

Three aunts and two uncles were public school teachers.  I taught and represented teachers for 36 years.  Two daughters are teachers, one a long-time middle school principal; the other junior high age special education.

On and on….

In no way would I be considered a mover and shaker in public education.  The best I could say for myself is that I showed up.  I am like the vast majority of persons in the world.  The ones who make a civilized world possible.

My closest brush to fame, I suppose, was in January, 1980, when I was with a group of teacher reps in the Cabinet Room of President Carter in Washington DC.  There were fewer than ten of us, and we were there to be briefed on issues.  I wish I would have kept the folder.  A few months later Congress established the Department of Education as a Cabinet Level Department.  Previously it had been part of Health and Human Services.

Today it is in transition, possibly elimination.  Here is the current website as of today (I cannot guarantee that this will be unchanged tomorrow, next week, next month.  Take a quick look.

POSTNOTE:

Life goes on, of course.  For me, kids, step kids, grandkids, on and on.

A couple of months ago I asked my siblings, all younger than I, to send photos of their first post high school (adult) endeavors.  For us, the time range I chose was from my high school graduation (1958) through my youngest siblings college graduation (1970).  In other words, we hit the ground running in the 1960s, all of us.

Without going into detail: I spent my first two post-college years in the U.S. Army, Cuban Missile Crisis on my watch in 1962.  Then I became a junior high school teacher; Mary became a Nurse, and the 1960s included public health nursing in Washington DC, and two tours on the Hospital Ship Hope.  Flo gave two years to the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, thence a year of teaching, thence County Extension work (4-H and such).  Frank and John graduate college as Air Force officers, Southeast Asia on their plate.  They both retired as Air Force officers.

There you have it.  All of us were government employees in our younger days, a couple for long careers.  We were young, then.

It was the 1960s.  Is it time for a reprise?

POSTSCRIPT: I have noted earlier that there is an immense array of issues to be addressed, and the best I think any of us can do is to address a few and become cooperating activists with others on their issues.

Because of relevant background, Education is a big deal for me; so is Social Security and a few others.  These I can write about with more than small knowledge.  And I can share the thoughts with people like yourself.

Results come in small increments, often seemingly invisible, like the parable of grains of sand, or mustard seeds….  We’ll wait forever for the viral moments.  Best we use the time we have, productively.

Dick Bernard, January, 1980 White House, Washington DC.  A few months later a Cabinet level for Education was established.

POSTNOTE #2 added March 20, 2025:  This week  I sent a letter plus attachments to my local school board.  You can read it here: School Board from Dick 3 18 25  (The clip from the NEA Today newspaper is October, 1999)

An excellent, troubling, post from Joyce Vance on March 20, 2025, here.